BIDAR TO WN
169
at Bidar has accommodation for loo prisoners, but those with
sentences of upwards of six months were until recently transferred to
the Central jail at NiZnMABAD.
The District takes a low position as regards literacy, only 1 .9 per cent.
(3-7 males and o-6 females) of the population being able to read and
write in I9oi. The total number of pupils under instruction in 1881,
1891, 19or, and 1903 was 655, 2,849, 2,742, and 2,559 respectively.
In 1903 there were 30 primary and 2 middle schools and one high
school, with 304 girls under instruction. The total expenditure on
education in that year amounted to RS. 25,800, of which Rs. 4,365 was
contributed by the local boards, Rs. 12,875 by the State, and Rs. I,56o
from school fees.
There are four dispensaries, including one Yfimdni, in the District,
with accommodation for 12 in-patients. In I9oi the number of cases
treated in all these dispensaries was 34,900, of whom 194 were in
patients. The number of operations performed was 503, and the total
expenditure was Rs. 11,248.
In igoi only 1,773 persons were successfully vaccinated, represent-
ing 2-3 per r,ooo of the population.
Bidar Taluk.-Tiluk in Bidar District, Hyderabad State. The
population in I9oi, including jdgirs, was 105,392, and the area was
487 square miles. In 1891 the population was 105,781. These figures
include the totals for the Kohir tdluk, which was merged in Bidar in
1905, and had an area of 236 square miles in I9oi and a population of
52,558. The tdluk contains two towns, BiDAR (population, 11,367), the
head-quarters of the District and tdluk, and KOHIR (6,379), besides
177 villages, of which 89 are jdgir. The land revenue in I9oi was
1.6 lakhs. The tdluk is situated on a plateau, composed mainly of
lateritic soil, and is crossed by the Manjra river. The paigdh tdluks
of Chincholi(population, 42,971; villages, 47), Ekeli (population, 24,324;
villages, 53), and Chitgopa (population, 80,929; villages, 93), and the
jdgir of Kalyani (population, 36,205 ; villages, 72) adjoin this taluk.
KALYANI (population, 11,I91), HOMNABAD (7,136), and ALIKHER
(5,740) are the chief towns in the Kalyani jdgir and Chincholi hiluk.
Mar Town.-Head-quarters of Bidar District, Hyderabad State,
situated 111 17° 55' N. and 77° 32' E., on an elevated and healthy
plateau 2,330 feet above the sea. Its population has increased during
the last twenty years: (1881) 9,730, (1891) II,3r5, and (1901) 11,367.
According to local tradition, the Kakatiya Rajas of Warangal endowed
a temple of Mahadeo which existed here, and a town sprang up in its
vicinity in the middle of the thirteenth century, which became the capital
of a large province. Ulugh Khan, afterwards Muhammad bin Tughlak,
besieged and took it in 1321 ; but subsequently, when the governors of
the Deccan rebelled, Ala-ud-din Hasan, the founder of the Bahman'_